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Executive Summary
Firefly Aerospace’s third-quarter revenue reached $110.7 million, up 259% year over year, and backlog closed at a record $1.7 billion. Spacecraft supplied $106 million of the quarter, launch only $4.7 million.
Alpha flew once in 2026. Guidance moved from four launches in March to three in August, and Flight 8, the Block II debut, now sits in the first quarter of 2027 after a national security customer asked for a manifest change.
The $1.3 billion engine and IP agreement with AST SpaceMobile brings $400 million in cash plus AST shares, funds Eclipse-related capacity, and starts producing meaningful revenue in 2027.
Eclipse and Blue Ghost Mission 2 both moved to 2027. Miranda engine qualification is underway with more than 175 hot fires logged.
SciTec gives Firefly the steadiest defense revenue it has: FORGE missile warning, a $94 million radar digitization award, the NITE-STAR vehicle and a Space-Based Interceptor agreement.
Free cash flow was negative $85.3 million in Q3 and management expects burn to rise through 2027. Liquidity of $534.7 million plus an undrawn $305 million revolver covers roughly six quarters at the Q3 rate before any AST cash.
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Here’s what you get in this analysis report:
Firefly Aerospace Company Overview: Key Facts
Corporate profile
Product architecture
Launch sites and geographic reach
Firefly Aerospace Revenue & Financial Analysis
Growth trajectory
Revenue mix and recognition rules
Margins and cost structure
Cash, liquidity and burn
2026 guidance and the Q4 bridge
Path to gross profit that covers operating cost
Alpha: The Small-Lift Franchise
Flight record and the road to Block II
The slipping 2026 manifest
Production readiness behind Flight 8
Customers and demand signals
Scenario model for the 2027 launch ramp
Eclipse and the Miranda Engine
Program status
Why Miranda qualification gates everything
Strategic role in launch supply
The AST SpaceMobile Agreement
Deal structure
Operating and financial implications
Blue Ghost, Elytra and the Moon Base Opportunity
Blue Ghost Mission 2: Riders to the Dark
Elytra and national security missions
Capacity and the CLPS 2 pipeline
SciTec and the National Security Franchise
What SciTec brought
FORGE as the anchor program
Extending the FORGE playbook
Responsive space and hypersonics
Competitive Position and Risk Register
Where Firefly holds an advantage
Risk register
Firefly Aerospace Performance Analysis: Is Firefly Gaining Ground or Losing It?
Where Firefly is gaining
Where Firefly is losing ground
Verdict
What to Watch from Now Through Mid-2027
My Final Thoughts
Official Sources & Data
Firefly Aerospace will report between $440 million and $450 million of revenue for 2026, about 2.8 times its $159.9 million of 2025, while its signature rocket flew a single time.
The revenue is arriving through spacecraft contracts, lunar missions and defense software. The launch business that built the brand supplied just 4% of third-quarter sales.
This deep-dive analysis maps where the money comes from, where the schedule risk sits, what the next six to nine months will confirm or break & more.
Let’s analyze everything in detail.
Firefly Aerospace Company Overview: Key Facts
Corporate profile
Firefly is a space and defense technology company established in 2017 with engineering, manufacturing and test facilities co-located in central Texas. Headquarters sit in Cedar Park, and the Rocket Ranch in Briggs, about 20 miles away, builds and tests launch vehicles.
The company lists four revenue-generating hardware products, Alpha, Eclipse, Blue Ghost and Elytra, and added a software and AI defense business through the SciTec acquisition.
FIREFLY AT A GLANCE
Founded: 2017
Headquarters: Cedar Park, Texas
Production and test: Rocket Ranch, Briggs, Texas
2025 revenue: $159.9 million
2026 revenue guidance: $440 million to $450 million
Backlog (September 30, 2026): $1.7 billion
Cash and short-term investments: $534.7 million
Undrawn revolving credit capacity: $305 million
Products: Alpha, Eclipse, Blue Ghost, Elytra, SciTec software
Product architecture
Alpha is the two-stage small-lift rocket, capable of delivering 1,000 kg to low Earth orbit. It flies Reaver engines on the first stage and a Lightning engine on the second, and launches from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.
Eclipse is the reusable medium-lift vehicle co-developed with Northrop Grumman.
Blue Ghost is the lunar lander and Elytra is the orbital vehicle that serves as transfer stage, relay and maneuverable satellite.
ECLIPSE SPECIFICATIONS
LEO payload: 16,300 kg | GTO: 3,200 kg | TLI: 2,300 kg
Length: 59 m | Fairing diameter: 5.4 m
Stage 1: 7 Miranda engines, 7,161 kN vacuum thrust
Stage 2: 1 Vira engine, 890 kN vacuum thrust
Propellant: LOX and RP-1, tap-off cycle
Design intent: return to launch site and propulsive landing
The Eclipse specifications show a vehicle sized for national security launch, space station resupply and constellation deployment. Seven Miranda engines at 7,161 kN means each engine delivers about 1,023 kN.
Launch sites and geographic reach
Alpha launches today from Vandenberg. A shared Alpha and Eclipse pad at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport in Virginia is in preparation, and Kim said work there supports launches from Virginia no earlier than 2027.
In Sweden, SSC Space is finishing Launch Complex 3C at Esrange for Alpha, and the first launch is targeted for 2028.
Firefly also signed a collaboration with Seagate Space on an offshore platform for sea-based Alpha launches.
LAUNCH SITE STATUS
Vandenberg SLC-2 (California): operational, upgraded for Block II
Wallops MARS (Virginia): pad under construction, Alpha and Eclipse
Esrange LC-3C (Sweden): final pad construction, first launch targeted 2028
Offshore (Seagate Space): collaboration signed in Q2 2026
Firefly Aerospace Revenue & Financial Analysis
Growth trajectory
Quarterly revenue climbed from $80.9 million in Q1 2026 to a record $117.7 million in Q2 before settling at $110.7 million in Q3. The Q3 figure sits 5.9% below Q2 but 259% above the $30.8 million posted a year earlier.
Nine-month revenue totals $309.2 million against $102.2 million in the same period of 2025. Q2 carried an accelerated national security hardware order that did not repeat in Q3.
QUARTERLY REVENUE (USD millions)
2025: Q1 55.9 | Q2 15.5 | Q3 30.8 | Q4 57.7 = 159.9
2026: Q1 80.9 | Q2 117.7 | Q3 110.7 = 309.2 (nine months)
Q3 2026 vs Q3 2025: +259%
Q3 2026 vs Q2 2026: -5.9%
The 2025 quarters show how lumpy